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Young people and video: a match made in market research heaven

Tom Higgins

- 27/11/2018

Young people are the brand influencers of today and tomorrow. As the leading actors of the digital era, Millennials make up 31.5% of the world’s 7.7 billion population, while Generation Z will account for 32% of the global population by 2019. As the spending power and influence of these young people continues to rise exponentially, so too does their importance in market research.

So how can market researchers get closer to this influential customer group and find out what makes them tick? Look no further… This short post takes a look at how modern video market research engages young people so they can start to share their story with your business.

Appealing to younger audiences

Do you remember listening to the sound of dial-up internet? Well in today’s world, you’re in the minority (sorry!). The majority of young people in 2018 struggle to remember a life without a continuous internet connection, let alone the whirring and beeping of the dial-up connection. Most of Generation Z can’t even remember life without social media. This generation is the first true group of digital natives, with over 91% already having a digital footprint and 98% owning a smartphone.

Thanks to platforms such as Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram, young people today are living – and sharing – their lives on the go. They are used to bite-size pieces of information they can process right away and like to express themselves in the same way. That means short, snappy audiovisual content, such as self-recorded videos, are a great way to engage this on-the-go generation in research.

The allure of video

Self-recorded video is growing in popularity by the day. Forty-eight hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute, and it’s estimated that 63% of internet users have watched live video – and unsurprisingly, it’s those aged 25-34 who have the highest video views at 90%. What does this all mean? That video creation and storytelling is no longer solely the property of huge film producers – everyone can now share their story, from anywhere in the world and we’re consuming it in larger volumes than ever before.

Most of us are never more than a few feet away from a smartphone or laptop with a built-in camera, meaning that we have a new generation that is entirely comfortable self-recording their thoughts and feelings. And with the growth of platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram Stories, it makes perfect sense that video is fast becoming the chosen communication tool for sharing these stories – especially when it fits in so well with the ‘on-the-go’ lifestyles of the younger generations.

In recent years, platforms such as Voxpopme have been able to leverage this shift in communication habits to benefit market research. By using technology, we’ve added structure to the way video feedback can be captured, analyzed and shared within enterprises – making video a hugely popular way for all generations to communicate with brands. Here are just a few reasons why agile video market research is proving to be so popular, especially with younger generations…

It’s fun

Young people today love to share their lives on social – and they’re becoming more and more confident using video to do so. With Snapchat boasting 186 million daily active users and Instagram Stories continuing its bid for world domination with 400 million daily users, it’s official: vlogging, video stories, and diaries are growing in popularity by the day. This self-recorded video style has lent itself to more structured communication between consumers and brands, with businesses now putting video feedback questions at the heart of their market research, providing a fun and engaging way for young people to take part.

After all, it’s fun to self-record a short video recounting an experience or expressing what they think about a product and why. Especially when the alternatives are a long survey or a 30-minute face-to-face interview in a specific location. And with the options provided by video insight platforms, there’s a type of video that appeals to everyone, that can be recorded in their preferred environment, on their terms. Consumers can capture selfie-style content during in-store shop-alongs, share experience-based feedback videos at events, test products, and complete diary studies from home or even share concept feedback in a variety of locations. Agile video feedback offers a wider range of fun and engaging ways for young people to get involved in research and share their thoughts.

It’s fast

Young people today live in a fast-paced world of continuous updates – they want information, and they want it now. They have grown up with technology and high-speed internet, and as a result, they expect things to work right away. This generation shares and receives information instantly – and they can lose interest just as fast too, which means they have no time for lengthy surveys. Survey fatigue is a real and growing challenge in the market research industry, and if other generations are struggling to complete exhaustive 30+ question surveys, you’ve got even less chance of young people doing so. Can you even remember the last thing you did for 30-minutes on your phone?

Our lengthy surveys are built with good intentions – we hope we can capture scales, scores and then give an opportunity for expression with open-ended questions. And to encourage respondents to share their real feelings, we’ve stuffed these open-ended text boxes throughout our surveys to enable respondents to share intimate thoughts, but in reality, they are pretty restrictive. The effort required to type out and edit one’s complex feelings often result in responses of just three or four words and little or no storytelling which leaves us back relying upon scores alone. But, video open-ends offer a quick and easy way for people to express themselves and share their opinions beyond the confines of their keyboard. It fits in around busy lives and allows customers to record anytime, anywhere, from their preferred digital device – so they can share in-depth stories easily.

Once transcribed, a typical video response gives an average of 460 character responses with a typical word count of 75. Video delivers six times more content and 65% more themes compared to text-based responses. Instead of scrolling through a survey and endlessly selecting options, or typing out long answers, video lets your customers get to the point, and fast – making it perfect for Millennials who want instant communication at their fingertips. Many go a step further, seeking out on-demand video feedback communities so they can express themselves to more brands, about the products and services they care about most.

It’s empowering

Another benefit of conducting video market research with young people is that it empowers them by enabling them to express themselves and ensures they feel heard in our enterprises. Think about when you’ve given written feedback yourself – did you write down everything you thought? Did you feel like you could effectively portray emotion through your words? And did you feel like your opinion was genuinely going to get heard? Or how about when ticking multi-select boxes or ranking responses on a scale. Did they represent what you were feeling? Nope, we thought not.

Your customers need to believe their feedback is making a difference – otherwise, to put it bluntly, why should they bother? And that’s where video has the edge over other research methods, especially with young people who really want to make a difference and feel as if their opinion is valued. Video makes young people feel like they are more than data – and it’s much more personal too. By allowing your customers to portray emotion and express both their body language and facial expressions, video adds a human aspect to communication – making young people more engaged, empowered, and willing to express themselves.

How it works

Researchers are often nervous about how long video will take and how expensive it is. But, today’s technology enables you to begin capturing hundreds of videos from your target audience in just a matter of minutes. It can be used as an agile qualitative tool or within quantitative research, so whether you want to utilize video in a new or existing study, collect videos alongside, within or after a survey, or capture content online or offline, it’s a quick and simple way to bring a human voice to your data.

Once your videos have been captured and uploaded to a video insight platform like Voxpopme, they will be instantly human-transcribed, checked for quality and time coded so you can quickly find the responses you need. Advanced tools like automated thematic analysis will also organize your content by keywords and phrases to make it easier than ever before to analyze. In addition, sentiment analysis is also available to help you categorize video content by positive, negative and neutral feelings so you can understand the sentiment behind every single sentence in every response. Finally, once your videos have been analyzed, you can select, customize and share your most powerful customer stories in short showreels that bring the voice of younger generations into the boardroom.

In conclusion, video market research allows you to cut through the noise to obtain raw, unfiltered content so you can better understand your consumers’ true feelings. But it’s not just about the benefits for you – video market research is also an unbeatable way to reach out to young audiences. It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s empowering – and above all, it’s a fantastic way for you to reach out to the customers of tomorrow.

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